RIP Hot Rodding Legend LeRoi “Tex” Smith

We were so deeply sorry to hear of the passing of LeRoi “Tex” Smith yesterday, June 11, 2015, in his adopted home of Australia. We knew Tex as a columnist for our sister site HotRodHotline.com, and we knew of Tex because he was a legendary hot rodder, auto journalist, and teller of tales.

Born in Oklahoma, Tex served in the Air Force in the 1950s, before returning to the United States, working for Hot Rod magazine, and co-founding Street Rodder. He was instrumental in kicking off the first Street Rod Nationals, as well as the newly forming (at the time) National Street Rod Association. He was passionate about crafting hot rods, about the culture, and the people, and he always generously shared his knowledge, information and talent with those around him.

Tex’s columns for our site were always characterized by wry humor, acute observations, and a genuinely entertaining combo of looking back at the past and looking ahead towards the future.

He was kind, funny, talented and we always enjoyed our interactions with him.

Over the next few weeks, there will be tributes coming out for Tex by those who knew and loved him, and we will share them with all of our readers. But for now, we wanted to let people know, and we wanted to express our deepest condolences to his friends and family.